Re: Wifi status indicator

On 02/07/2024 16:11, Chris Townley wrote:

Good routers monitor nearby signals, and will change channel to avoid conflicts. With some you can override this

That doesn't work well, the router may detect a competing signal and change to channel which looks better where it is, but your clients some distance away may suffer more interference on this new channel as they are closer to another access point. Also if several nearby routers are using this technique you may find your channel frequently, and performance varying greatly day to day.
Because 5GHz doesn't travel as far, especially through walls, it's easier. Generally everyone will be using the default setup of an 80Mhz wide channel at 36, so pick 54 instead. If that's also use check which other non overlapping channels are valid in your location (varies due to interference with radar).
2.4GHz tricker as it is pretty saturated every where outside the back of beyond, but the rule is to stick to the non overlapping 20MHz wide channels at 1,6 and 11. Any use of the other channels will cause far worse interference, so steer clear of that.
To pick the best one of the three, check the signal strength of competing networks, not at the router, but where your clients are located as that makes more of a difference. Use the channel with the weakest competing signals. On Linux iwconfig will show the signal strength and link quality of the connected access point, and iwlist scan will display information on all the access points it can see.
---druck